(It turned out ti be that,) When translating in Trados, placeholders in Word and TagEditor can be copied to target from source with Alt+Ctrl+Arrow Down (terms from Multiterm termbase are inserted with the same commands, but without Ctrl).

Menu line in Trados Workbench toggles by Alt+F10 command. In most cases, it is better to hide it - in order to have more free space on the screen for Word/TagEditor or for Workbench. It is especially a case for laptops.  

Often, a task arises: a client sends files to process in some folder structure, and I am not allowed to change this structure. Then, all operations with those files in Trados (analysis, clean up etc.) become into a torture, as I have to specify paths to all files in Add Files dialog box separately - i.e. I have to open each and every folder. When the structure is branched and the files are many, loss of time becomes tangible.Recently I had real file structure with 953 subfolders, each containing only one file. You can speed up the opening/closing process considerably with the following trick:1. Open Analyse Files/Translate Files/Clean Up Files dialog box2. Run Windows search (via Win+F)3. In Add files and folders specify file type for the files you are searching4. Open Look in list. Click its last item "Browse..." and specify a path to the common folder there, where there are all subfolders. Press Search.5. When finished (the search can take a long time depending on the amount of files) drag-and-drop all found files to Trados Analyse Files/Translate Files/Clean Up Files dialog box.6. Analyze/Pre-translate/Clean up.

Sometimes I need to import, for example, a translation memory (1) containing American-Russian segments into British-Russian TM (2), or vice versa. Trados does not allow making it directly. In such a situation, the following method works: - Export TM (2) to ТМХ. - Replace language code for American English EN-US to British English EN-GB in NotePad or any other text editor (I use PSPad instead). - Import TM (2) into TM (1) using regular Trados import function. Hope this helps :) 

I noticed a strange "feature" in Trados+Multiterm (I use v8.3):When a term, which is present in a termbase connected to Workbench, is placed in the parentheses in the text (and it does not matter whether they are round or square ones) or in quotation marks, it is often (not always!) DOES NOT marked with a red line in Workbench. Nevertheless, when you go over found terms with Alt+Left Arrow or Alt+Right Arrow commands, it is yet displayed in the terms area in Workbench.

Sometimes you need quickly get a clean .doc or .rtf file in Word when it does not matter for you whether your translation will get into TM or not.. You can do it easily in Word even without Trados. To clean a file is actually to remove hidden text. So, to clean up without Trados, you can do the following: Ctrl+H > "More" > Format > Font > "Hidden" check box > Replace all I.e., hidden text is just being replaced with "nothing".  

Do you like listening to music when translating/prrofreading? If yes, what kind of music?   I can listen to music only when the text is tedious and does not occupy my brain. But, unfortunately, I don't like "background" music: I like LISTENING to music, and that is why I cannot listen to my favourite songs and groups.   What about you?

Freelance is an advantage for those, who: - needs to have a leeway - whose time is impossible to schedule for some reason - who has to work at home physically The main "advantage" here is freedom, because, for a freelancer, it is hard to earn a good deal of money, comparing to regular establishment. Yet, there are exceptions: some translators like to work only out-of staff and do not agree to work in another format - and prosper! Freelance is often a destiny for a people who are either in some narrow circumstances, or vice versa, fanatically freedom-loving. A typical freelancer is a student: for him/her, freelance is a possibility to gain some experience and reputation, to earn some money, and, sometimes, to find an employer. I.e. freelance is "on-the-job training", allowing not to drop studies. In most cases it turns out that freelance is a springboard for future full-time job. 

Trados Concordance function (its window can be displayed with F3 key) is ill-adapted to searching short upper case terms (for example, "ID") in a TM. This glitch was present in mesozoic Trados versions, and I am not sure if something changed in young Trados Studio 2009 (write about it know something). When searching for such terms in TM, I use two tricks: - I type a term to search in lower case ("id") - I add some additional word to that term. It is better to use some common word which is most probably present in source segments - it can be, for example, an article (i.e. I type "the ID" or "a ID"). Hope this hepls.

Working at home does not dispose to punctuality. Being boxed up in the house, you are constantly tempted to look over a newspaper, to have a chat with somebody by phone, to have a cup of coffee, to glance at the TV etc. - i.e., there is always a lot of extraneous things, drawing your attention away from your job. Organizing your work at home is a sophisticated art since you have to prove to all people around you that you are WORKING, that you are not just sitting at the computer, that you are roaming in the Internet because of necessity, that NOW no one is allowed to draw your attention, that this stack of dictionaries MUST be on your table and not in the bookcase in another room etc. But the nicest problem is to prove all the above to YOURSELF :)